Screen time blocking software recommendations?
February 22, 2014 11:54 AM Subscribe
In our family, the children may earn screen time each day by doing physical activity. Then they start playing on the computer. It would be helpful to have a program that just turns off the computer entirely when the amount of time specified had elapsed. Because currently we have the "just one more thing" phenomenon when the time was up. This would put it back on the user to get to a good stopping place by the right time. I could use it myself in many situations, too.
I tried searching around and what I could find was parental blocking software that limits the times people use the computer, but the ones I looked at didn't seem to do it in a way that matches our rules. Any suggestions of software that does what I described, or that does something else that might be compatible with our rules, would be appreciated.
I tried searching around and what I could find was parental blocking software that limits the times people use the computer, but the ones I looked at didn't seem to do it in a way that matches our rules. Any suggestions of software that does what I described, or that does something else that might be compatible with our rules, would be appreciated.
Look for sleep timer software. That should do the trick. Here's one example.
posted by corvine at 1:13 PM on February 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by corvine at 1:13 PM on February 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
Just use a timer - smartphone or oven timer. When the alarm rings computer goes off - no negotiations. This works in our house.
posted by mattoxic at 3:44 PM on February 22, 2014
posted by mattoxic at 3:44 PM on February 22, 2014
What operating system are you using?
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:42 PM on February 22, 2014
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:42 PM on February 22, 2014
We used this for a few years for 3 teenagers with success. You can pre-generate tokens of different time lenghts and event set constraints on when they can or cant be used.
posted by emjay at 8:04 PM on February 22, 2014
posted by emjay at 8:04 PM on February 22, 2014
Response by poster: @mattoxic, I'm afraid my kids don't buy into the "no negotiations" concept. Looking for a software solution is to avoid my having to be in the room when the timer goes off, sometimes physically removing the computer from the kid. Switch Off got a trial run tonight and seemed to work OK. I'll be trying other sleep timer software as well to see which one I like best.
posted by AdaJoy at 7:40 PM on February 28, 2014
posted by AdaJoy at 7:40 PM on February 28, 2014
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posted by raisingsand at 11:59 AM on February 22, 2014 [1 favorite]